Shoe finishing machine



Dec. 8, 1970 J. R. DE BIASE 3,545,021

SHOE FINISHING MACHINE Filed April 1, 1969 3 SheetsSheet 1 INVENTOR JOHN R. De BIASE TTOR EY Dec. 8, 1970 J. R. DE BIASE SHOE FINISHING MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 1, 1969 INVENTOR R. DeBlASE AIITZ Dec. 8, 1970 J. R. DE BIASE 3,545 0 SHOE FINISHING MACHINE Filed April 1, 19 59 3 Sheets-Sheet INVENTOR JOHN R. DeBlASE United States Patent 3,545,021 SHOE FINISHING MACHINE John R. De Biase, 8509 Mount Vernon Hwy., Alexandria, Va. 22309 Filed Apr. 1, 1969, Ser. No. 811,863

Int. Cl. A43d US. Cl. 12-1 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A shoe finishing machine having a drum carrying a plurality of rotary tool shafts for sequential presentation of tools to a working position. Drive is provided to the presented shaft through pulleys mounted on the ends of each shaft and a drive belt encircling the shaft pulleys, a drive pulley and a tensioning pulley. As the drum is indexed, a vacuum system cooperates sequentially with bafiies mounted around each shaft to provide for dust collection from the presented shaft.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention pertains generally to shoe manufacture and repairing and more particularly to shoe finishing machines.

Shoe finishing machines comprise devices having one or more rotary shafts carrying rotary shoe finishing tools such as trimming wheels, sanding wheels, rotary brushes and the like. The tools must generally be grouped on different shafts since tool speeds for different operations vary. Such shafts are usually mounted in end to end relationship, thereby resulting in a relatively long machine. Due to increasing space costs, large machines are increasingly expensive to maintain. The multiple shafts either are driven by individual motors or are connected to a central power source through standard friction clutches. The initial costs of such machines are high and they require frequent maintenance and replacement of parts.

The shoe finishing process also involves the sequential steps of trimming the rough cut edges of a shoe sole, sanding the edges of the sole and heel and final finishing including polishing and/or burnishing the resultant sole and heel edges. Due to the layout of the prior art machines, the operator must necessarily walk many miles during the course of a days work to accomplish the finishing steps.

In recent years, more compact machines have been provided in which the various tool shafts are mounted in parallel relationship to one another. In such machines, the drive to the various shafts either requires clutches to deactivate the unused shafts or entails continuous drive to all of the shafts, thereby costing the power necessary to drive the unused tools. The arrangement of tools in these newer devices is also awkward in that they must necessarily be one above the other and, in the case of constant drive to all shafts, presents a certain amount of danger to the operation in that he must work over an active shaft when using the adjacent tools.

The prior art compact machines also suffer the disadvantage of providing a reduced capability over the older, in-line shaft machines, in that the number of tools and the accessibility thereto is necessarily reduced by the nature of the parallel shaft arrangement.

The prior art machines are also generally ineffective in that the dust collecting systems provided have been complex, difiicult to maintain in a clean condition and difficult to empty because of the location and complexity of their filter system. These prior art systems generally include a hood over and behind each individual tube and conduiting communicating the hood to a central source of vacuum and filter bag located behind the machine. The difiiculty in emptying the filter presents great disadvantages since the likelihood that the filter will be clean is diminished and probability that vacuum efliciency will be impaired is increased. The long and complex conduiting attendant with the prior art machines also causes losses in vacuum efficiency and presents areas where dust can collect and further impair the efficiency of the dust collecting systems.

Other machines, having coextensive parallel shafts mounted on rotary supports for sequential presentment of an individual shaft have been proposed in the prior art, but have met with little acceptance due primarily to the requirement for either continuous drive for each shaft, separate drive motors for each shaft or relatively complicated drive changing clutches. The dust collecting problems of such devices are obviously even more complicated than those of the conventional machines when prior art duct collecting systems are used.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention furnishes a novel shoe finishing machine of minimum length length and maximum capacity which avoids the disadvantages of the prior art by providing an indexible drum carrying a plurality of tool shafts which can be sequently presented for working.

The invention also provides an indexible drum, multishaft shoe finishing machine which is easily maintained by furnishing a novel shaft drive changing mechanism therefor.

Another benefit afforded by this invention is the provision of a novel dust collecting system for an indexible drum shoe finishing machine which is inherently selfcleaning and from which the collected dust may be readily removed for maximum efficiency of operation.

In a preferred embodiment, the invention comprises a plurality of coextensive parallel tool shafts mounted on an indexible drum for sequential presentation of tools to a working position; a belt drive encompassing pulleys mounted on the end of each shaft; a drive mounted on the machine support; and a tension pulley to maintain a driving connection between the drive pulley and the pulley of the shaft presented for working and preclude driving connection between the drive pulley and the remaining shaft pulleys.

The invention also comprises, in a preferred embodiment, a source of vacuum and a filter communicating with a plenum chamber disposed beneath the drum; an elongated slot in the chamber parallel to the axis of the drum; each shaft being bracketed by a pair of baffle plates extending across the rotary parallel to the axis thereof, the plates tapering toward one another to form a slot disposed to register with the chamber slot when the shaft to which they relate is presented for working.

These and other attendant objects and advantages of this invention will become better understood to those skilled in the art by reference to the following detailed description when viewed in light of the accompanying drawings wherein like components throughout the figures thereof are indicated by like numerals and wherein:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of an apparatus in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a left side elevational view of the device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the device of FIG. 1 taken along the line 3-3 thereof;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view of the device of FIG. 1 taken along the line 44 thereof;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view of the device of FIG. 1 taken along the line 55 thereof; and

3 FIG. 6 is a schematic view and a variation in the drive portion of an apparatus in accordance with the inventlon.

DESCRIPTION OF THE P-REFERJRED EMBODIMENT In Figures 1 and 2 a device embodying features in accordance with this invention, comprises a support frame 10 including side members 12 and 14 interconnected by cross members 16. A shaft 18, rotatably mounted between bearings in the side members 12 and 14, supports a rotary or drum for rotation within the support frame. The rotary 20 comprises generally circular end members 22 and 24, concentrically mounted on the shaft 18 in spaced relation to one another and interconnected by longitudi nally disposed bafiles described in greater detail below.

A pair of working shafts, 2'6 and 28, are rotatably mounted between the end members 22 and 24, parallel to and on opposite sides of the shaft 18. The shafts 26 and 28 extend beyond the end members 22 and 24 and, on the ends proximate the member 22, have pulleys 30 and 32 respectively, mounted thereon.

A drive motor 34, mounted on the side member 12, drives a pulley 36 which is disposed in coplanar relation to the driven pulleys 30 and 32 on the working shafts. A drive belt 37, entrained around the aforedescribed pulleys, is maintained in drive transmitting relation to the drive pulley 36 and the pulley of the forward or presented shaft (pulley 30 in FIGS. 1 and 2) by means of a belt tensioning device comprising an idler pulley 38, pivotally mounted to an upper rear cross member 16 and biased in a rearward direction by a compression spring 40.

The free ends of the working shafts 26 and 28, extending beyond the end member 24, may be provided with means to accept quick change fittings for attachment of ancillary equipment such as burnishers, heel breasters or the like.

A dust collecting system, disposed beneath the rotary 20, comprises a plenum 42 communicating through a duct 44 with a blower 46. The blower exhausts through a duct 48 to an accordion pleated fabric filter bag 50 and-a dust collecting drawer 52. A second drive pulley 54, mounted on the drive shaft of the motor 34, drives a blower pulley 56 through 'a drive belt 58.

In lieu of the double-ended drive motor illustrated, it should be understood that a single drive motor, with suitable split drive transmission to the blower 46 and drive belt 37, may be substituted if so desired. The drive belts 37 and 58 are preferably of a segmented, link-type known in the art so that, particularly in the case of belt 37, the belts may be disconnected and replaced as necessary without requiring substantial dismantling of the machine.

The Working shafts 26 and 28 are provided with rotary shoe finishing tools as is known in the art. In the process of shoe finishing, the rotary tools generally comprise coarse finishing tools such as 'breasters and sanding wheels of various widths and diameters and final finishing elements such as brush wheels and burnishers. For most effective operation the coarse tools are commonly operated at a higher speed than the final finishing elements and, for this purpose the shaft 26 has grouped thereon coarse tools such as sanding wheels 60 while the shaft 28 is provided with a grouping of final finishing elements such as brushes 62 (FIG. 3). To provide the most effective speed for the elements, the pulleys 26 and 28 are selected with diameters suitable for producing the desired rotational speed in their respective shafts. In the illustrated embodiment, the pulley 32 is greater in diameter than pulley 30 thereby producing a slower rotational speed in the brush grouping on the shaft 28 than in the sanding wheel grouping on the shaft 26.

In FIG. 3, the dust collecting system is illustrated in greater detail. Cooperating pairs of bafiies 64a and b and 66a and b are longitudinally disposed between the end members 22 and 24 to substantially bracket the, shafts 26 and 28, respectively.

Except for their orientation, the pairs of baflles are essentially identical and the following description of the baffles 64a and 64b should be understood to apply equally to bafiles 66a and 66b. The bafile 64a extends from the periphery of the rotary 20, diagonally between the shaft 18 and the shaft 26 to a point sufiiciently past the shaft 26 to clear the tools disposed thereon. The baffie 64a then extends in a plane parallel to a plane intersecting the aforedescribed shafts to form a hood-like cover for the shaft 26. The baffle 64b is disposed on the opposite side of the shaft 26 and describes a chord of the end members 22 and 24 at an intersecting angle with and terminating in spaced relation to the baffle 64a to define therewith a tapering channel culminating in a slot 68 at the periphery of the rotary 20. The baflies 66a and 66b similarly terminate in a slot 70, 180 degrees displaced from the slot 68. The plenum 42 is provided with a central slot 72 longitudinally disposed along the upper surface thereof and located to communicate with the slot 68 in FIG. 3 or with slot 70 when the rotary 20 is rotated 180 (FIG. 4). Resilient seals 74 on each side of the slot 72 reduce loss of suction between the plenum 42 and rotary 20.

Means are provided for indexing the rotary 20 to the working positions thereof. Such means comprise longitudinally extending pins 75 and 76 on the end member 24 and a pin engaging catch 78. The catch 78 is mounted on a longitudinally extending shaft 80 and is moved to a release position by means of a foot pedal 82 acting through a vertically extending push-pull rod 84 and a crank 86 attached to the free end of the shaft 80. A compression spring 88 biases the push-pull rod 84 in a downward direction, thereby biasing the catch 78 in a pin engaging configuration. The catch 78 is released by depressing the foot pedal 82, which depression actuates the push-pull rod 84 in an upward direction and rotates the crank 86, shaft 80 and catch 78 in a clockwise direction. Release of foot pedal 82 returns the system to the position illustrated under the influence of the bias from the compression spring 88.

As is seen in phantom in FIG. 3, additional auxiliary drives may be'provided at the end of the rotary 20' by rotatably mounting a stub shaft 90 in the end member 24 and providing drive therefor by means of a driven pulley 82 mounted to the stub shaft, a drive pulley 94 mounted on the free end of the shaft 26 with an auxiliary drive belt 96 entrained around the pulleys and providing transmission of drive therebetween. A similar auxiliary drive arrangement may also be provided from the shaft 28 if so desired. By properly selecting the ratio diameters of the pulleys 92 and 94, the optimum rotational speed for the auxiliary drive may be achieved.

As is best seen in FIGS. 1 and 3, in order to provide for the efiicient application of vacuum in the dust collecting system, movable covers may be provided to block the opening over the tools not in use. Such covers may comprise, as shown in phantom, a plate 98 hingedly and slidably mounted on a rod 100 disposed along the upper end of the bafile 64a. The plate 98 may be positioned over a grouping of tools not immediately being used, to thereby limit the application of vacuum to the area of the tool 1n use.

It should be understood that more than two working shafts may be mounted on the rotary or drum 20, if required. In such case, the variation in the drive arrangement of FIG. 6 will be required. In this figure, components corresponding to like components of the preceding figures are indicated by like numerals only of the next higher order.

In this figure the drum is provided with two additional shafts (not shown) which have additional driven pulleys 102 and 104 mounted thereon and disposed in coplanar relationship to the driven pulleys and 132, the drive pulley 136 and the idler pulley 138. An additional idler pulley 106 is disposed above the rotary 120 and in coplanar relation to the aforementioned pulleys to engage, in combination with the drive pulley 136, the idler pulley 138 and the driven pulley 130 of the presented shaft, the drive belt 137 to provide transmission of drive between the pulleys 136 and 130 while precluding contact and transmission of drive to the remaining driven pulleys. Pulley 138 and/or pulley 106 can be biased outwardly of the drum 120 to provide the required tension of the belt 137.

The position of the idler and drive pulleys may obvious- 1y be interchanged without affecting the operation of the drive transmission.

The driven pulleys 130, 138, 102 and 104 may then be sequentially presented to the working position for the shaft to which they correspond in an identical manner to that described above for the embodiment of FIGS. 1 through 5. Obviously, with the idler pulley arrangement of FIG. 6, any number of driven pulleys and shafts greater than two may be incorporated in the apparatus so long as the drive and/or idler pulleys surjacent and subjacent the driven pulley of the presented shaft are laterally located to preclude contact between the drive belt 137 and the driven pulleys adjacent the driven pulley of the presented shaft.

As can be seen by reference to FIG. 6, the overall arrangement of the drive and idler pulleys 136, 138 and 106 must be such that the path described by the drive belt 137 entrained therearound is tangent to a point coincident with the pulley 130 of the presented shaft in an indexed position of the drum 120, yet clear of the adjacent pulleys 102 and 104.

In operation, and with reference first to FIGS. 1 through 3, the apparatus is configured for operation of the sanding wheels 60 on the shaft 26. The catch 78 engages the pin 75 maintaining the rotary 20' in a configuration presenting the shaft 26 and sanding wheel 60 to a working position at the front of the machine. The slot 68 is in registry with the slot 72, threby providing for application of vacuum to the area defined by the baffles 64a and 64b. The motor 34 energized, the blower 46 draws air from between the baffles 64a and 6412 into the plenum 42 through they slots 68 and 72 and exhausts air through the duct 48 into the filter bag 50. As is seen in FIG. 3, the air is then exhausted through the fabric of the filter bag 50 and the residual dust settles in the drawer 52 from which it can be periodically removed by withdrawal of the drawer from beneath the filter bag.

In the sanding configuration, and with specific reference to FIG. 2, drive is provided for the shaft 26 by engagement of the drive belt 37 with the pulley 30. The shaft 28 is inoperative in this configuration since it IS withdrawn from contact with the belt 37.

When the sanding operation has been completed, the foot pedal 82 is depressed, thereby releasing the pin 75 and freeing the rotary 24 for rotation and indexing to the next position. With specific reference to FIG. 2, it is seen that, with the geometric arrangement of the pulleys 38, 30 and 36, and the rearward biasing influence of the compression spring 40, a resultant downward pull is continually exerted on the shift 26. When the rotary 20 is released for rotation, the downward pull on the shaft 26 initiates rotation of the rotary in a clockwise direction, thereby causing downward movement of the pulley 30 and simultaneous upward movement of the pulley 32 toward the position shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. The rotary 20 will continue rotation until the pin 76 (FIG. 3') engages the catch 78 whereupon the shaft 28 and brushes 60 are presented at the front of the machine in a working position and the slot 70 and slot 72 are aligned to apply vacuum between the baflies 66a and 66b. As best seen in FIG. 5, drive is then applied to the shaft 28 through the pulley 32 which is now in engagement with the drive belt 37. The shaft 26 is inactivated due to the positioning of the pulley 30 out of contact with the drive belt. After brushing, the machine can be recycled to the sanding 75 6 position by again depressing the foot pedal 82 whereupon the rotary 20 is again released for clockwise rotation as was described above.

It should be obvious that other mechanical or electromechanical means may be substituted for the above described foot pedal release means without exceeding the scope of the invention. The catch 'means may also include a shock absorbing or bumper device to absorb the energy of the rotary 20 as it is indexed.

It should also be understood that suitable bafiling for the auxiliary equipment mounted proximate the end member 24, similar to the baflie described for the sanding and brushing tools above, may be provided to communicate with the plenum 42 for recovery of dust from this area of the machine.

What has been set forth above is intended primarily as exemplary of a teaching in accordance with the invention to enable those skilled in the art in the practice thereof. It should, therefore, be understood, that within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced other than as specifically described:

What is new and therefore desired to be protected by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A shoe finishing machine comprising:

a support;

a drum rotatably mounted on said support for rotation between indexed positions about a first axis;

tool carrying means including a plurality of shafts rotatably mounted on said drum is spaced parallel relation to said first axis and circumferentially disposed to present one of said shafts to a forward, working position in each of said indexed positions;

a driven pulley mounted on each of said shafts in coplanar relationship to one another;

drive means including a drive pulley associated with said support in coplanar relation to said driven pulleys;

tensioning means including at least one idler pulley associated with said support in coplanar relationship to said driven pulleys;

an endless drive belt encompassing said pulleys, said belt being at least equal in circumferential length to a minimum path circumscribing said drive, idler and the driven pulley of the presented one of said shafts;

said drive and idler pulleys being oriented with respect to said driven pulleys, when said drum is in an indexed position, to maintain said belt in drive transmitting relationship between said drive pulley and the driven pulley of the presented one of said shafts and out of drive transmitting contact with the remainder of said driven pulleys, and means resiliently biasing at least one of said idler pulleys against said belt;

and means to rotate said drum between said indexed positions.

2. A machine in accordance with claim 1 wherein said tool carying means comprises two shafts mounted on said drum in diametrically opposed relationship to one another substantially equidistant from said first axis, and

wherein said tensioning means includes one idler pulley.

3. A machine in accordance with claim 1 wherein said tool carrying means comprises at least three shafts, and

wherein said tension means includes two idler pulleys.

4. A machine in accordance with claim 1 wherein said indexing means comprises means to drive said drum between indexed positions and latch means to releasably retain said drum in each of said indexed positions.

5. A machine in accordance with claim 1 further comprising dust collecting means associated with the presented one of said shafts.

6. A machine in accordance with claim 5 wherein said dust collecting means comprises a stationary plenum having inlet slot seat longitudinally adjacent said drum and at least coextensive therewith and exhaust blower communicative with said plenum, and filter means receiving the exhaust from said blower.

7. A machine in accordance with claim 6 wherein said dust collecting means further comprises a plurality of a pair of bafiles longitudinally mounted on said drum to bracket each of said shafts, each pair of said bafiles being disposed to taper toward one another and terminate in an elongated opening conforming to and registrable with said slot when the shaft to which they correspond is presented to a working position.

8. A machine in accordance with claim 1 further comprising at least one stub shaft rotatably mounted on said drum is spaced, parallel relation to said first axis, a stub 8 shaft driven pulley mounted on said stub shaft, a stub shaft drive pulley mounted in coplanar relationship to said stub shaft driven pulley on one of said shafts proximate said stub shaft; and an endless stub shaft drive belt entraining said stub shaft driven pulley and drive pulley to transmit drive therebetween.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,006,953 7/1935 Klos 12-1 2,217,095 10/1940 Bennett 12--1 2,231,134 2/1941 Marchetta et a1. 121 3,066,331 12/1962 Skelton 121 PATRICK D. LAWSON, Primary Examiner 

